The Punjab and Haryana High Court has reprimanded the state government and asked why the definition of the word gangster has not been decided. The court has directed the government to present all the documents related to the formation of Organized Crime Control Unit and Anti-Gangster Task Force. Along with this, information has also been sought about the current status of the Punjab Control of Organized Crime Act.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has reprimanded the state government and asked why the definition of the word ‘gangster’ has not been decided. The court also directed the Punjab government to present all the documents related to the formation of Organized Crime Control Unit and Anti Gangster Task Force before the court. Along with this, it has also been asked what is the current status of the Punjab Control of Organized Crime Act which is currently under consideration of the Home Department.
Order to file reply on April 8
This matter is listed for hearing on Tuesday. Earlier on April 3, when the matter came up in the court of Justice Harkesh Manuja, he asked the AIG level officer of Punjab Police to clarify whether the definition of the word ‘gangster’ has been given in any law of the state or not.
On this, the AIG sought two weeks’ time from the court, but the court postponed the hearing to April 8 and directed the state to file its reply in this regard.
The court sought this information from the state government
The petitioner’s lawyer also told the court that it is surprising that no legal definition of the word ‘gangster’ has been given in any act.
Earlier, the court had asked the state government to clarify whether any separate law has been made to deal with organized crimes.
It was also asked how many such FIRs have been registered across the state in which common people have said that there is a threat to their lives from ‘gangsters’.
Hearing on Simarjit Singh’s petition
The court gave this order while hearing a contempt petition filed by 42-year-old Simarjit Singh, a resident of Gurdaspur. In the petition, he has demanded contempt of court action against Punjab ADGP (Security) Sudhanshu Srivastava.
The lawyer said that his client is being threatened by some criminals to withdraw the FIR lodged and that is why he approached the court for protection.
He said that Simarjit Singh has received death threats from gangster Lovepreet Singh alias Lavi, who is an associate of notorious criminal Sukhmeet Pal Singh alias Sukh Bhikhariwal.
